Pocket Piketty: A Handy Guide to "Capital in the Twenty-First Century"

by Jesper Roine

We all know the book: it’s been hailed as one of the most important documents on how the world economy works, or doesn’t work, and it’s been a colossal bestseller since it first appeared in 2014, with more than 1.5 million copies sold. Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century makes a powerful case that wealth, and accumulated wealth, tends to stay where it lands: and with the passage of time, just gets bigger…and bigger.

But how many of us who bought or borrowed the book–or even, perhaps, reviewed it–have read more than a fraction of its 696 pages? How many more shuddered at the thought of committing $40 to such a venture? And how many of Piketty’s groundshaking concepts have gone unappreciated, all for want of intellectual stamina?

Deliverance is at hand in the form of Pocket Piketty, written in clear and accessible prose by an experienced economist and teacher–and one whose work was relied on by Piketty for his masterpiece. In this handy and slim volume, Jesper Roine explains all things Piketty.

Genres: Economics, Politics, Nonfiction, History

162 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2017

About the author

Jesper Roine is an expert on wealth and income inequality, as well as one of the researchers who has contributed to the World Top Incomes Database upon which Piketty’s research is based. He is an associate professor of Economics at SITE at the Stockholm School of Economics and has been published, extensively, on the topic of income and wealth inequality. Together with his colleague Daniel Waldenström at Uppsala University, he is responsible for the Swedish data on long-run income and wealth inequality used in Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century.

Reviews

[Maria Espadinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Extreme Sisters


PART I — The Story


Allow me to introduce you Richness and Poverty — the Extreme Sisters:

Richness is an overweighted greedy eater — she eats her food and is always finding ingenious ways of also stealing Poverty food.

Poverty is the opposite — as a consequence of Richness greediness, Poverty eats very little. So little that she’s getting worriedly thinner and weaker.

Fortunately, Poverty’s best friend knew about a doctor who could provide a helping hand to Poverty’s problem: his name was Thomas Piketty, and he was an expert in making fat people thinner and thin people fattier.

So... one fine day Dr. Piketty popped in... and ... what he did was quite simple:
He found a clever way of preventing Richness from eating so much. That way Poverty could also eat enough to overcome her weakness.
Thanks to Dr. Piketty, Poverty’s problem was finally solved! 😊👍


PART II — The Comments


Right now, I have a strong feeling that most of you will be raising an eyebrow, while thinking something a bit or lot like this:

“Ok, ok, that seems quite nice, but the wealthy love too much their food, to provide such a happy ever after to that story!”.
Sure!... That’s a perfectly reasonable first thought!... But please allow me to extend a bit further this line of thinking:

In 2017, 1% of the world’s population owned half of the global wealth. Since 2008, the richest are getting richer at a 6% rate. If this rate goes on, in 2030, this 1% will own 2/3 of the world’s richness.
However, in quite simple terms, capitalism is buying and selling. But if this present state goes on and on, in not such a far-away future, who’s gonna be there to buy what?!...

When I think of a picture good enough to capture the essence of capitalism, an huge greedy dragon munching its own tail, comes to my mind — step by step, capitalism is devouring itself, digging its own deep grave!...
That’s why a clever strategy to reduce the social abyss, should be welcome by everyone — not just the poor, but the wealthy as well!

So...maybe that happy ever after is finally conquering some sense after all!...

[Maria Espadinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um Passaporte para a Paz


Sabiam que:

— “Mais de 80% da riqueza criada no mundo em 2017 foi parar às mãos dos mais ricos que representam 1 % da população mundial”.

— “Em 2017 a riqueza dos 2043 multimilionários existentes no mundo, aumentou 762 mil milhões de dólares (622,8 mil milhões de euros), uma verba suficiente para acabar mais de sete vezes com a pobreza extrema no mundo.”

— “Mais de metade da população mundial tem um rendimento diário entre 2 e 10 dólares (entre 1,6 euros e 8,1 euros).”
........

https://observador.pt/2018/01/22/rela...


A riqueza e pobreza extremas caminham lado a lado. Os ricos estão cada vez mais ricos, e os pobres cada vez mais pobres, e até à data nada se fez para contrariar tal tendência.

E o desenvolvimento tecnológico de que o sistema capitalista tanto se orgulha, tem tanto de benéfico como de devastador: se por um lado promove a qualidade de vida, por outro é um continuado factor de desemprego. Onde hoje encontramos um humano, amanhã poderá estar um autómato. E é de todo impossível menosprezar os fabulosos humanóides, aqueles robots inteligentes criados à imagem e semelhança da humanidade, que nos fazem vacilar com um misto de admiração e insegurança — até quando estaremos seguros nas nossas profissões, se até já existem máquinas capazes de raciocinar?!...

E a criminalidade?

E a guerra?

Encontramos na História da Humanidade múltiplos exemplos que estabelecem uma relação de causa e efeito entre a desigualdade social e as calamidades acima referidas!

Foi pois neste contexto, que Thomas Piketty escreveu um calhamaço com mais de 900 páginas ( O Capital do Século XXI ), onde nos mostra como aqui chegámos, e mais importante que tudo, o que poderá ser feito como antídoto!

Porém, como tal calhamaço intimida muitos, surgiu este Piketty Para Todos, pois uma estratégia económica que contrarie a crescente desigualdade social terá, imperiosamente, que ganhar asas e voar. Urge integrá-la nas políticas partidárias, nos programas eleitorais... o que significa que terá que chegar, imperiosamente, a TODOS!...

E se pensarmos bem, há uma cereja no topo do bolo — além de tudo o mais, o que Thomas Piketty nos traz, é um Passaporte para a Paz ☮️ !
Se há livros capazes de mudar o Mundo, este será certamente um deles!!!

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this along with reading the source text (Capital in the 21st Century (CitTC) by Tomas Piketty.

I have zero background in economics.

ZERO.

Early on in my reading of CitTC I felt a little unclear on some of the important constructs that Piketty’s arguments and analysis are founded on.

So I picked this up to see if it would help me moving forward in the text.

Mission accomplished!

It did help.

After reading this, I’m at least more clear about:

• r>g

• β=s/g

• α=r x β

And how they function in the CitTC argument.

Subsequently, I feel more confident in the technical sections of the book.

I am also more able to enjoy the broad strokes (for dummies) sections too.

Additionally, it was AWESOME to hear some of the educated critical discourse on CitTC.

The end result:

CitTC has me thinking more clearly and critically about a wealth inequality.

And subsequently, I feel WAY more fucked than I did to begin with.

This little explanatory summary of Piketty’s amazing work has been instrumental in helping me get to this WAY WAY more fucked feeing.

And for that, I’m grateful.

If I’m on a treadmill to nowhere...

I’d rather have the lights on.

😑👎😳👍

[Sambhavna Biswas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

Jesper Roine made the concepts very easy to understand. I think there are 5 key points that I will take away from the book
1. The change in income share in the top 10% is driven by changes in the top 1%
2. The decline in income share in the 20th century was driven by specific shocks (world wars, taxation, economic shocks).
3. The force which can level out inequality between countries and individuals is increased diffusion of knowledge and skills
4. The force which can increase inequality is when the average return on the capital > average rate of growth in the economy
5. Piketty's solution is a progressive tax on capital which would avoid concentration of wealth at the top distribution while preserving competition and not kill the motor of capital accumulation and entrepreneurship.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encouraged me to read the full book, but further postponed that urge. To summarize this summary: Piketty is mostly introducing and analyzing a new, more complete data set of changes in national incomes and wealth over the last 100+ years. In addition, this data now allows us to ask questions about the portions of income/wealth going to the top 10% or 1% across countries. The mid-20th century is an anomaly of relative equality (ending in the 80s esp in the U.S.), but whereas pre-wars inequality was mostly based on accumulated capital and the inherited rate of return on capital, this return to inequality seems to have more to do with incomes, the wildly disproportionately wages of the 1% or 0.1%. In the end, the big hoopla of his recommendations is a very modest tax on accumulated wealth.

[Rishvanth Reddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging, short and sharp companion to Thomas Piketty’s ‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’. Spread across three sections, this book explains the data and underlying research on the global distribution of Income over the twentieth century, summary of the Piketty’s Capital, and major contentions to the Pikeety’s conclusions in the academia. Piketty’s complex dissection of the capital based on historical trends shows how development is just ‘top one percent phenomena’, that sharply increases the inequalities across countries. He believes that to undo this process, there is a need for increased diffusion of knowledge and skills, and a global progressive tax on capital.

[Nicky Lim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good primer on the 700-ish page book. The policy recommendation on a global effort to have progressive tax on capital is bold. Where do we go from here? The distribution of wealth and income over generations must be studied, otherwise we may very well look at another war or crisis to level it out again.

[Raúl · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional summary of the most important economic book of our times. I wish every non-fiction book would have its summary counterpart.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

With no intent of ever reading through the nearly 700 pages of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, I did enjoy this summarized version that boiled down the major points and observations of wealth accumulation. Bordering on entry level college economics, Jesper Roine kept the difficult concepts to a minimum to broaden the availability of the hefty tome's work. Even if you have to skip a few concepts because they are beyond your grasp, you will still find some interesting information that helps explain why the rich keep getting richer. And the summaries give us a few ideas on how to slow or stop the trickling upwards of wealth from the many to the few.
For me, it puts a little different perspective on the progressive tax system and its effects on our society.

* I received a free copy of this book from Goodreads giveaways *

[Akash Nair · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have Capital on my bookshelf and it looks formidable. Pocket Piketty makes it less so. Jesper provides a useful summary of Capital and explains it without getting too technical. He also extols Piketty and his monstrous treasure trove of a book and persuades the reader to go for it.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good, precise summary and analysis of the 700 page classic. It makes me want to read more - I think that's a good thing!

[Felix · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's tough to give this a fair review, having not actually read more than 60-odd pages of the book it sets out to summarise, but I have to say I was fairly happy with the brevity and clarity with which Roine lays out Piketty's methods, arguments, and suggestions. The formulae especially (the "fundamental laws of capitalism"), which originally went straight over my head and very quickly turned me off Piketty's book, are here explained in a straightforward way, with just enough data included to demonstrate their uses. Further, Roine's consideration of the main criticisms levelled at Capital in the Twenty-First Century, along with his evaluation of Piketty's suggestions for an international (or at least pan-European) tax on capital, feel well-measured and comfortably non-ideological, even as he acknowledges the importance of social justice and egalitarianism in motivating large-scale economic research in the first place.

Pocket Piketty is clearly no substitute for actually reading Piketty directly, given the limitations of its short length, but it does serve to demystify the source material, to make the 700-page monolith a sight less daunting.

[Tim Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's often useful to split a book into its content and its presentation. I think that is particularly useful here.

The presentation is close to perfect. The writing is clear, the book is short but covers a lot of ground, the figures are very useful.

In terms of content, the book is a summary of another book, so Roine can't (and doesn't) lay claim to the content. And it's just very subjective how interesting you think the economics of inequality is. And I don't know enough economics to really know if the original ideas are sensible or not. It all seems reasonable to me. Most of the book is descriptive with only the very end being about value judgements and policy recommendations.

So for me, a really enjoyable read. Discovered a whole argument and area of economics in a blissfully short, readable and intelligible package.

[Jessada Karnjana · Rating 4 out of 5]

สำหรับคนที่ยังไม่มีเวลา ไม่พร้อม สำหรับ Capital ของ Thomas Piketty แต่อยากรู้ว่าเขาพูดอะไร และอยากรู้ว่าถูกวิจารณ์ในแง่มุมไหน หนังสือ Pocket Piketty สรุปมาให้ด้วยความหนาประมาณ 150 หน้า ในช่วงระยะเวลาของข้อมูลที่ Piketty วิเคราะห์ (ตั้งแต่ต้นศตวรรษที่ 19) บอกว่า กลไกสำคัญที่เพียงหนึ่งเดียวที่ลด inequality ของรายได้และความมั่งคั่งคือสงครามและทุนที่ถูกทำลาย และแรงที่ผลักให้ inequality เพิ่มขึ้นคือข้อเท็จจริงที่ว่า rate of return on capital (r) สูงกว่า rate of economic growth (g) มาก นั้นคือ ตั้งแต่ช่วงสงครามเป็นต้นมาจนถึงปัจจุบัน g>r แต่เขาเชื่อว่าแนวโน้มต่อไป r จะกลับมามากกว่า g อีก จะยิ่งขับให้ inequality มากขึ้น และเสนอว่าทางออกคือ progressitve tax สำหรับทุน ... อ่านเล่มนี้จบ ทำให้อยากอ่านเล่มใหญ่

[Tobin South · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have the time to read Capital in the Twenty-First Century, do it. If not, you've freed up the time to read 5 more books.

A self-aware summary, Ronie illustrates the key points of Piketty without the verbose discussion and elaboration. Pocket Piketty is still a full book in it's own right, not just by length but by it's interesting analysis of Piketty and is reception in the economics community.

More people should be exposed to the key ideas of distribution changes in wealth and income and the impact of ratio of income growth and return on capital (r > g); and this book is a friendly way to do so.

[Gareth Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

My suggestion is to read "Progress and Poverty" by Henry George instead.
Good summary but subject matter indicates an adherence to the false dichotomy of fungible labour and the role of capital being only to extract economic rent. Under those conditions - yes - its a straight fight in a zero sum game.

People are better than that, and not all capital has to be deployed to extract economic rent. I think it suits both ends of the political spectrum to rely on the consequences of accepting that dichotomy, as it has since Marx + Malthus.

[Roger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barely 3 stars. While the subject matter is incredibly important Roines` discussion of it is rambling, repetitive and hard to get through (even though it's only just north of 150 pages).

It's a shame. Piketty deserves a much better introduction to his monumental effort. Regardless of what you think of Piketty's work it's impossible to avoid acknowledging it's gravity.

[Johan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do not have an economics background, so I wasn't familiar with all the jargon. I did learn from it, but not as much I had hoped. I wonder if reading the Dutch translation would give me a better understanding.

The charts were too small to be useful on an ebook reader.

[Ankit Bhardwaj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read as clearly written. But needs better citations - both to Piketty's original text, and others it references. Does, but rarely, descend into economic jargon.

[Akshat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet; serves its purpose of being a good introductory material to Capital in the Twenty-First Century. It teased out many big points, and left me wanting to read Thomas Piketty's tome.

[Kim Zinkowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting..., however I am less inclined to read Piketty's "Capital".

[Syd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really helpful when analyzing specific chapters of the original 700 pages. It’s engaging and easy to understand, even if you have little to no background in economics.

[Lora Templeton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A deceptively slim volume that guides general readers through Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century. As other reviewers note, Roine accomplishes his daunting task of summarizing 700 pages of academic scholarship on modern economics and even perhaps a glimpse of the character of the scholar himself. When Picketty utilizes examples from literature and history in his analysis and Roine wisely pulls these into his summary, Capital in the Twenty-First Century illustrates how the Humanities and STEM can work together to enrich our understanding of the world.

This book worked well as a companion my readings in early twentieth century European history as well as my goal to understand American history in the twenty-first.

[Augusto Delgado · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pacey little book made to ease up the readers incursion into the famous Thomas Picketty's huge tome "Capital in the Twenty-First Century".

The books reads as as very thorough review of the aforementioned volume, it goes throughout each part carrying the reader into the key contents that Picketty put together. It even has links to the statistical archives from where the french author gathered his analytical data.

Not that it's some Cliff's notes that will relieve you from reading it, on the contrary, Jesper Roine strongly recommends to do the deed and enjoy the prose and the narrative of such a dull subject, as the income and growth indexes.

Good help.